422 
EXTRACTS—RURAL AFFAIRS. 
steam conveyed through pipes, or by means of fires; but the first two methods 
are preferable, the heat being more congenial. Stove plants are apt to be in¬ 
fested with insects, such as the green fly, red spider, and the mealy bug. The 
first may be destroyed by the smoke of tobacco, and the second by sulphur- 
vivum, mixed in a pail of quick lime, with which the flues should be washed all 
over, this being a sure method of exterminating them. The mealy bug and 
scaly bug can only be got rid of by removing them with a small hair brush, and 
for this purpose the plants should be examined as often as possible. The plants 
should be washed from an engine in fine weather, the house being kept warm, 
and thus they will always be clean and healthy. Air should be admitted as early 
in the morning as possible, in warm weather, taking care to shut up early in the 
afternoon, that the house may be kept at a proper temperature during the night. 
The time for repotting them is early in the spring, and the pots should always 
be drained with sherds, to keep the mould loose and free from being soddened 
with water. The time at which cuttings should be planted is the same as that 
for green-house plants, when the wood is fit, but these require heat. Seeds of 
stove plants should be sown immediately on their arrival from abroad, although 
the general time of sowing be early in the spring. A gentle liot-bed is the best 
for raising tropical seeds, but some few will come up better on a shelf or flue in 
the hothouse; and the sooner seedlings are potted off separately the better.— 
Succulent Plants, so called, are such as have a fleshy nature. They are called 
dry green house or dry stove plants, and require to be grown in the same tempera¬ 
ture as green-house and stove plants, being natives of the same latitudes. In 
some gardens houses are specially appropriated to these plants, where they are 
placed on stages or shelves, and kept rather dry throughout the winter. In 
gardens where there are no houses thus appropriated, they should be kept on 
shelves erected for this purpose in a stove or green-house.— Geo. Don. 
RURAL AFFAIRS. 
Orchards around Farm Houses. —It is expedient that every farm should 
have some portion of orchard ground attached to it. The most convenient and 
guarded situation for it is immediately behind the house, so that the back kitchen 
door may open into it. It matters not whether it be on the north or any other 
side of the buildings. Many think that an orchard should be in a low sheltered 
spot, but this is a serious mistake. Fruit trees succeed best on a moderately 
high and open situation. Shelter from wind is certainly necessary, but this pro¬ 
tection must be obtained otherwise than by planting in a dell. A deep mellow 
loam is most suitable for an orchard. It does not require to be richly manured, 
provided it is fresh, unexhausted, and sufficiently dry. Whether the sub soil be 
gravel or stone, provided such beds lie not too near the surface, it will be no 
detriment to the trees ; but if of a tenacious clay which is retentive of moisture, 
then draining must be resorted to, in order to free the soil from superfluous 
moisture. This must be done effectually, otherwise it will ever be a subject of 
regret to the planter. A sloping surface is better for all plants than a dead level, 
not because a heavy or long continued rain or melted snow runs oft’ the sooner, 
but because that portion of it which sinks into the ground gradually passes down¬ 
wards in an under current, leaving no portion to stagnate in any one place, and 
